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Roland Winters
Born Roland Winternitz in Boston, Massachusetts on 22 December 1904, Winters was the son of Felix Winternitz, a violinist and composer who was teaching at New England Conservatory of Music. In his teens he began appearing in productions from local theater groups around Boston and made his Broadway debut in 1924 in "The Firebrand." In 1931 he became the sports announcer for the Braves and Red Sox games on the radio station WNAC. He had a few uncredited film roles in the 1940s (including a brief appearance in Orson Welles' Citizen Kane in 1941), but continued to work in radio until 1947.
Sidney Toler, who took over the Charlie Chan role from Warner Oland, bought the screen rights to the Chan character and brought the series to Monogram Pictures. Toler died in 1947, practically in harness; despite terminal illness, he kept going in the series as long as he could. Monogram decided on Roland Winters as Toler's replacement. At the age of 44 he was the youngest actor to tackle the role, and was actually several months younger than Keye Luke, who portrayed his "Number One Son" and assistant in the last two Chans. Winters made six Chan films, starting with The Chinese Ring in 1947 and ending with Charlie Chan and the Sky Dragon (also known as Sky Dragon) in 1949. During this period, in addition to his work as Chan, Winters also appeared as a character actor in three other feature films.
Viewers are divided about Roland Winters as Charlie Chan. Some consider him an ineffective successor to Oland and Toler; others defend him for his unique approach to the character. Oland's Chan was shrewd and placid, Toler's was observant and crabby, and Winters's was generally sarcastic and impatient. In 1949 Monogram had funds tied up in England, and decided to send Winters and Keye Luke there to make more Chan films, but when the British government suddenly devalued the currency, the Chan series was abandoned.
After the series finished, Winters continued to work in film and television until 1982, including roles in So Big, Abbott and Costello Meet the Killer, Boris Karloff, as Elvis' father in Blue Hawaii, as the judge in Follow That Dream also with Elvis and appearances in the early TV series Meet Millie as the boss, and the Bewitched TV series as the normally elusive McMann of McMann and Tate.
Winters died as the result of a stroke at the Actor's Fund Nursing Home in Englewood, New Jersey on 22 October 1989.
“Death, the one appointment we all must keep, and for which no time is set” Charlie Chan
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Hawaii officially became apart of the US on June 14, 1900.
Roland Winternitz
22 November 1904, Boston, Massachusetts
22 October 1989, Englewood, New Jersey
Hollywood's third Charlie Chan was also a veteran character actor, often specializing in businessman types, and radio announcer.
Son of Felix Winternitz, a violinist and composer who had achieved great success through his world tours during the late 19th century. By the time of Roland's birth, Felix had settled in Boston as a professor at the New England Conservatory.
He was in his middle teens when he worked on a cargo ship that sailed to Central America and later to the West Indies during the summer. It was at about this time that Winters began his career on the stage, working in theater groups around Boston.
Made his Broadway debut in 1924 with "The Firebrand," which was produced by a friend of his brother.
In 1931, Winters got the job of announcing Braves and Red Sox games on radio station WNAC. He continued to work in radio until 1947.
At the age of 43, Roland Winters, more than thirty years younger than his predecessor, the late Sidney Toler, and virtually the same age as Keye Luke who would again appear as Chan's number one son, Lee, first appeared as Charlie Chan in 1948.
In the 1970s Winters's voice appeared in a number of radio spots for Manhattan's House of Chan, in which he expounded on the joys of eating at his "cousin's" famous restaurant. He concluded each commercial with "tell 'em Charlie sent you".
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